Where Once Our Voices Led

It is 1899, Bob Godston, a boy from the ‘back blocks’ has been sent to board at Otago Boys’ High. He is co-opted by the weekly newspaper, The Otago Witness, to write a series of letters to its children’s column, ‘Dot’s Little Folk’. His letters, his life at school, and at home in the holidays, take us on a rollercoaster ride through the three terms of his school year.
But beyond the prep room and the football field there is the patriotic fervour that engulfed colonial society of the time. Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee was celebrated in 1897, then the 50th anniversary of the Otago in 1898. Then came a war: A war that tested loyalties, and relationships, both political and personal. The result is a rite of passage – for all.